Spend some time this weekend staring at the bike and trying to figure out how I am going to lay out the wireing. Never created a harness before. The making the harness isnt so hard. Just trying to figure out where its going to run and how to keep it clean looking thats the hard part. Im going to try and run some of it thru the frame and out of site.

I just put an order in for some rubber grommets and some bolts for the valve cover. Those should be in this week and I can start laying wire as I think I have everything else that I need.

Made a test piece or my connectors. Just to get my process down. Turned out pretty good I think. Just using Bullet connectors for the most part. Its simple and clean. I dont want big bulky plastic connectors all over the bike. I like how these are very streamlined and kinda disapear on the wire once plugged together.

Still working on moving out of my old house. Lots to do yet but its getting closer. Another week or so and I should be out of there. 4 rooms down. 2 to go plus the outside shed stuff (shudder)

Im not so concerned with pulling wires thru. Thats not that bad. Im just thinking. So I make this wireing harness complete with my bullet connectors and all that. Everything works fine and dandy. Well I have to take this bike apart still to get it painted. Am I going to be able to pull the wireing out of the frame and put it back in with the bullet connectors in place? Im only putting like a 3/8 hole in the frame. The grommets I have coming in are 9/32 id using a 3/8 hole. The rear frame tubes are only 1-1/8 dia so I cant go too big with my holes. Nor do I want to really.

My vision is to 1st fish a somewhat ridged wire thru the frame. Then on the end of that tape the 3 wires I want to pull thru staggering the connectors one after the other so they will go thru the hole easier. then just pull them thru. Sounds easy huh

I guess Ill just have to try a section and see how it works. The frame backbone wont be hard as thats a larger tube. Its mainly just the tailight run that concerns me as thats smaller tubing.

I know the pros usualy paint the frame 1st then wire it up. I dont really want to do that. I want to put it together and make sure everything works before I strip down for paint. Ya know. Make sure something doesnt need welding at the last minute. maybe Ill have to make 2 harness's. One temp one and the final one.

Hey also.. should I say black tape wrap the wires together that are running thru the frame to protect it from abrasion? Kinda thinking I should.

I did get some better solder last night. Flux core 1/16 dia so I can solder my bullet connectors on as well as crimp them. I did another test piece and the new solder is sooo much better to use. Flows beautifuly. The solder I was using on my 1st test piece...well lets just say it doesnt work for shit and leave it at that. I dont know why I even keep that crap around...just cant throw anything away I guess. Something I probably got from my grandpa that he got back in the recession...

Im not so concerned with pulling wires thru. Thats not that bad. Im just thinking. So I make this wireing harness complete with my bullet connectors and all that. Everything works fine and dandy. Well I have to take this bike apart still to get it painted. Am I going to be able to pull the wireing out of the frame and put it back in with the bullet connectors in place? Im only putting like a 3/8 hole in the frame. The grommets I have coming in are 9/32 id using a 3/8 hole. The rear frame tubes are only 1-1/8 dia so I cant go too big with my holes. Nor do I want to really.

My vision is to 1st fish a somewhat ridged wire thru the frame. Then on the end of that tape the 3 wires I want to pull thru staggering the connectors one after the other so they will go thru the hole easier. then just pull them thru. Sounds easy huh

I guess Ill just have to try a section and see how it works. The frame backbone wont be hard as thats a larger tube. Its mainly just the tailight run that concerns me as thats smaller tubing.

I know the pros usualy paint the frame 1st then wire it up. I dont really want to do that. I want to put it together and make sure everything works before I strip down for paint. Ya know. Make sure something doesnt need welding at the last minute. maybe Ill have to make 2 harness's. One temp one and the final one.

Hey also.. should I say black tape wrap the wires together that are running thru the frame to protect it from abrasion? Kinda thinking I should.

I did get some better solder last night. Flux core 1/16 dia so I can solder my bullet connectors on as well as crimp them. I did another test piece and the new solder is sooo much better to use. Flows beautifuly. The solder I was using on my 1st test piece...well lets just say it doesnt work for shit and leave it at that. I dont know why I even keep that crap around...just cant throw anything away I guess. Something I probably got from my grandpa that he got back in the recession...

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I've never put a wiring harness inside a frame before but a nice trick is to use compressed air to blow a string through the tube and use that to fish the wire back through. I've done it with heated hand grips and it works pretty good.

I wouldn't paint the frame with the wire inside. You're going to have to tape off the wire that's sticking out and the grommets. Sounds like more trouble than it's worth to me.

As far as never throwing anything away . . . I had a rental house and the hot water heater craped out on a saturday. The tennent called me and I went over to Home Depot and bought a hot water heater and went to install it. I spent all day trying to solder the pipes to get the install done. I had to come back the next day and the poor guy had to take a cold shower that morning. I called a plumber friend the next day and he came by and coudn't get it done either. Just couldn't get the solder to stick. Finally out of despairation I went and got new solder and flux. Bam! everything worked as it should. I missed 4 football playoff games that weekend messing around with old flux and solder. It's funny now but at the time . .

No Im not planing on painting it with the wires in it. I just dont know if once I pull the wires out... if I can get them back in..hell Can I even get them out to begin with once I put the ends on. I guess Ill just have to try it and find out. I like the string idea though. Ill have to try that.

No Im not planing on painting it with the wires in it. I just dont know if once I pull the wires out... if I can get them back in..hell Can I even get them out to begin with once I put the ends on. I guess Ill just have to try it and find out. I like the string idea though. Ill have to try that.

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I get what you're saying. Heck yes I would do a test run with the wires before the paint. To me the whole pre-assembly process is to find functional faults in the design and get them corrected before paint, but it's also to find faults in the assembly process. Practice makes perfect.

It's your bike. Do what you feel comfortable with. I'm just saying what I would do. Knowing my skills and my ability to scratch new paint and all.

By the way I cannot rave enough about Mcmaster Carr's shipping and website. Its just a model of how a company should run. There website is 2nd to none. I ordered my parts yesterday morning at like 9am. 10am they were shipped. Today they are out for delivery. That just amazes me. love that place. love love love that place.

And at work (im an engineer) they have 3d cad data for most any part on there site avaliable for download that I can put into my assemblies.

They might not be the cheepest place in town. But they always have what I need and get it to me fast. Some things are just worth the money spent.

By the way I cannot rave enough about Mcmaster Carr's shipping and website. Its just a model of how a company should run. There website is 2nd to none. I ordered my parts yesterday morning at like 9am. 10am they were shipped. Today they are out for delivery. That just amazes me. love that place. love love love that place.

And at work (im an engineer) they have 3d cad data for most any part on there site avaliable for download that I can put into my assemblies.

They might not be the cheepest place in town. But they always have what I need and get it to me fast. Some things are just worth the money spent.

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I don't care if I order $5 or $500 worth of parts, it's the same for me. Great people to deal with.

So Friday night I had a few spare minutes so I wandered down into the shop to do some tinkering with the electrics. Which is code for staring at this growing pile of electrical shit and figure out how the fuck to unpile it and make it play nice together.

About this time I notice...ie smell a problem. Apears my dog has had an accident in the basement (if its going to happen this is the room for it) but it was quickly aparent we had a problem. I wont go into the specifics of it but I knew my dog was not well. So I shuffled her off to the garage (dont need anymore accidents in the house) and took off for an hour to pick up my girlfriend at the airport. By the time we got back we knew we had a serious issue and raced her to the emergency pet care but it wasnt meant to be.

So has anybody pulled wires thru a frame before?... Am I going to be able to pull the wireing out of the frame and put it back in with the bullet connectors in place?... My vision is to 1st fish a somewhat ridged wire thru the frame. Then on the end of that tape the 3 wires I want to pull thru staggering the connectors one after the other so they will go thru the hole easier. then just pull them thru...Hey also.. should I say black tape wrap the wires together that are running thru the frame to protect it from abrasion? Kinda thinking I should.

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I've only messed with this a little bit but what we did differently was to not pre-build the harness. We laid out all the wires needed (3 in your case) with a few extra feet of length per wire. We taped it all up, and then we fished it through the frame without any caps or ends soldered on. Once the harness was pulled through the frame and situated it was easy to pop the grommets on and then peel back the electrical tape, cut off the excess, and solder the ends on.

If you want to do a dry run you could pull the wire group through and then leave the extra length of wire when you solder your bullets. That would give you the option of cutting off the bullets to remove the harness before paint. You will know your wire is good and still have enough spare wire to work with so that, after paint, you can run it through again, readd grommets, peek back electrical tape (abrasion control), check your connections, trim wire to length, solder on bullets, and go drink a refreshing frosty.

I'll be building another new harness for my BSA in a few months (hopefully) and the above is how I plan to manage it.

I've always used this little trick for running wiring through confined spaces. I made the video for another board I go to a lot. I'm a hillbilly, you don't have to point that out. In the future I'll spit my snuff out before I make any more movies.

Im hoping to get back to the bike soon. Sorry about the lack of progress. I really want to get back to work. Just life has been getting in the way as well as lots of small "new house" projects that need to be attended to.

I did manage to do a little work to that CT90 of mine. The gas tank was really rusty inside. Did a little reading online and decided electrolisys was the answer. Water, Soduim Carbonite, coat hanger and a battery charger, Hook it all up properly and let it cook for 3 days and its amazing how clean the tank comes out. Very happy with the results.

So hopefully soon Ill be back into the BSA. Going to try and hit the house project list hard and try and beat it back a little so I have some time to work on the bike.